Berlin 17 May (ANA) - A German oil producer has been accused by the head of Libya’s National Oil Corporation of withholding more than $900m (£697m) from the Libyan state and colluding with unlawful efforts by Libya’s UN-backed government to take over the sale of the country’s vastly profitable oil contracts. The power struggle between the NOC and Wintershall – which denied that it owed any money and said it had always met its obligations to the state – has long-term implications for global oil prices and the Libyan economy, since more than 80% of Libyan state revenues derive from oil. Despite Libya’s political crisis, oil production has been gradually increasing of late, reaching 800,000 barrels per day. The NOC is seen as one of the few bipartisan Libyan institutions capable of keeping out of the political infighting that has dogged the country since Muammar Gaddafi fell in 2011. Libya was producing 1.6m barrels per day before the uprising, and the NOC has said output in 2017 could reach between 1.1m and 1.2m barrels per day if political obstacles are removed. The NOC argued that the battle with Wintershall, and the support the company has enjoyed from the UN-backed government, was vital to its ability to keep control of decisions on oil contracts away from politicians, and ensure that the maximum amount of revenue reaches the state coffers. Mustafa Sanalla, the head of the NOC, claimed that Wintershall knew before him of a controversial move by the presidency council – the name of the UN-backed government led by Fayez Serraj in Tripoli – to take over control of decisions on the terms of oil contracts and investments from the NOC. The legal status of the presidency council’s move, which occurred in March and is known as resolution 270, is now unclear after an appeal court in Benghazi ruled on Monday that the council had over-reached itself. Based in Kassel and part of the chemical BASF Group, Wintershall is the oldest established oil company in Libya, and is regarded as being better positioned than other foreign oil firms to increase oil production in Libya.(ANA)

FA/ANA/17 May 2017--------